Proposal to Congresswoman Marilyn Musgrave (R-CO)

[LocoPatrick]

Hello, everybody. I am brand new to this forum, and am looking forward to learning a lot more about the Polywell reactor research. I'm an engineer, but not a physicist; what I have read (and as far as I understand it), the Polywell has huge potential to change the world if we could just get one built.

I am active in politics, and am currently trying to get time with Congresswoman Marilyn Musgrave during her August break when she is back in Colorado to discuss long term energy solutions. Below is the text of an email I sent EMC2fusion.org. I wanted to post it here and get as much feedback and information as I can so that I can make a good proposal to the Congresswoman. Here is the text:



Hello,

My name is Patrick Albright. I have recently learned of the research into fusion energy production that has been performed by Dr. Robert Bussard and his organization. I understand the virutally infinite possibilities that fusion energy presents to us, and feel that the research being done by the Energy Matter Conversion Corporation offers the greatest hope to supplanting our dependence upon fossil fuels: specifically oil from foreign nations with interests against the United States. I am frustrated at the lack of support that the research has been receiving.

Recently, I have been getting more involved in the political process in Northern Colorado. I am the Republican Precinct Chairman in Wellington, Colorado, and this gives me occasional access to United States Representative Marliyn Musgrave and Unites States Senatorial Candidate Bob Schaffer. I wish to present my representatives with data and encourage them to take leadership in supporting Congressional funding for your research. Given our current energy crisis, I believe that the time is right for bold steps with our national energy policy.

I have some questions that I hope you can help me with to make my case to my representatives:

1. Are there any independent sources of information that detail the theory and workability of the Polywell reactor? In making my pitch, I want to offer my representatives independent sources of information that support your work... not necessarily technical data, but magazine articles, books, etc.

2. What reasons have private enterprise not jumped on supporting this research? Is there not enough direct return to attract private capital? When making my pitch, I'm going to reference national security through energy independence as a justification for public funding, but I also want to explain why private enterprise has not invested in this.

3. Why did the United States Navy cut off funding for the Polywell Reactor in the first place? Was the funding only for a set period of time? Was the money needed elsewhere? Was there interference from the Department of Energy?

4. I recently heard that you have received a $2 million dollar grant to continue research, but I did not have details such as where the funding came from. I imagine that this is being used for Phase 1 research for the WB-6 experiments. Where did this funding come from? How much progress have you made since receiving this funding?

5. Is there any other information or suggestions you have for me when making this proposal to my representatives?

Congresswoman Musgrave will be in her local office here in Northern Colorado in August during the Congressional Recess. I am trying to get fifteen minutes of time with her to make this proposal for the $200 million your group requires. The more information that I have, the better proposal I can make. If you would like to see how I am putting together the proposal for the Congresswoman, please let me know and I would be happy to send it along. Please let me know if you have any questions. Also, could you please send an immediate reply just acknowledging that you have received this email?

Thanks and best regards,
Patrick Albright

[MSimon]

I recently heard that you have received a $2 million dollar grant to continue research, but I did not have details such as where the funding came from. I imagine that this is being used for Phase 1 research for the WB-6 experiments. Where did this funding come from? How much progress have you made since receiving this funding?

The funds have come from the US Navy.

A progress report is quite likely once the research is done and written up. My guess is that we will see such a report in the next month or two.

You might also want to co-ordinate with the McCain Campaign. He seems interested in the project:

http://powerandcontrol.blogspot.com/200 ... ident.html

In the US we have a pretty good research/development collaboration with industry. The government does the basic (high risk) research and once something useful comes out of it industry takes over to produce useful items based on the research.

Nuclear fission was handled that way.

[MSimon]

Let me add that over the last two years I have received a number of inquiries from private industry about funding the research. None of that came to anything by the time the Navy stepped in. My guess is that they are waiting in the wings to see the results of the current effort before committing to any further private efforts. Which is a prudent decision.

[JohnP]

Hello Patrick, and welcome to the forum.
There are many well qualified people here who can help answer these questions. I'll try to answer a few here.

1. Are there any independent sources of information that detail the theory and workability of the Polywell reactor? In making my pitch, I want to offer my representatives independent sources of information that support your work... not necessarily technical data, but magazine articles, books, etc.

2. What reasons have private enterprise not jumped on supporting this research? Is there not enough direct return to attract private capital? When making my pitch, I'm going to reference national security through energy independence as a justification for public funding, but I also want to explain why private enterprise has not invested in this.

3. Why did the United States Navy cut off funding for the Polywell Reactor in the first place? Was the funding only for a set period of time? Was the money needed elsewhere? Was there interference from the Department of Energy?

4. I recently heard that you have received a $2 million dollar grant to continue research, but I did not have details such as where the funding came from. I imagine that this is being used for Phase 1 research for the WB-6 experiments. Where did this funding come from? How much progress have you made since receiving this funding?

5. Is there any other information or suggestions you have for me when making this proposal to my representatives?

Congresswoman Musgrave will be in her local office here in Northern Colorado in August during the Congressional Recess. I am trying to get fifteen minutes of time with her to make this proposal for the $200 million your group requires. The more information that I have, the better proposal I can make. If you would like to see how I am putting together the proposal for the Congresswoman, please let me know and I would be happy to send it along. Please let me know if you have any questions. Also, could you please send an immediate reply just acknowledging that you have received this email?

Thanks and best regards,
Patrick Albright

1. As far as I know, there is no Polywell Book out there yet written for laymen. The published material is all scientific journals. However, a lot of information is on the web. Here are some relevant links:

http://powerandcontrol.blogspot.com/200 ... nd-it.html
www.emc2fusion.org
www.askmar.com/Fusion.html (wait till they clean the malware off the site)

2. Private businesses apparently are interested in the technology, however, it's far enough away from anything else they're doing now that they don't have any current research going on. Also, Polywell is protected by patents. In addition, it's still in early development. The EMC2 group in New Mexico has been working on it since last year, and may be ready to present results around the end of the summer.

5. About the best thing to do now is simply build awareness that research is going on right now, and results are expected shortly. IF the research validates the ideas, further funding for research in the following areas will be needed:

* Building a demonstration power plant
* Building other small prototypes to test how design changes affect efficiency.

If validated, the upsides will be huge, in terms of national energy policy:
* Low-cost electric power plants that run on tiny amounts of a nearly inexhaustable fuel.
* No greenhouse gas emissions
* Little to no environmental hazards - radioactivity, etc
* No dependence on foreign supplies

[JohnP]

There's a lot of guilt-by-association when it comes to smaller fusion research projects. The Cold Fusion debacle, and other poorly-validated research, makes people think twice about looking at this seriously. To the good, EMC2 has been keeping a tight lid and going slow. But the business community has good cause to be skeptical, even with such potential rewards.

[LocoPatrick]

Thanks for the replies. Dr. Nebel contacted me yesterday and asked me to hold off going directly to the Congresswoman at this time. In the meantime, I am going to work to raise awareness of this work to as many people as I can.